College and Research Libraries


B y L E M O Y N E W . A N D E R S O N a n d B I L L L . K E L L 

Human Relations Training for Librarians? 

AF E W Y E A R S ago a great American ed-ucator stated that many colleges 
and universities are annually awarding 
degrees to "intellectual monstrosities" 
who can enumerate formulae in chemis-
try and physics by the score, who may 
call by name all the bones of the h u m a n 
frame, but who cannot give satisfactory 
answers to the following questions: 
" W h a t is man? W h o made him? W h a t 
was he made for?"1 Casselman was de-
livering a serious indictment of modern 
higher education. We suggest that the 
training of librarians may have to an-
swer, in part at least, to the same indict-
ment. T o paraphrase the learned gentle-
man quoted above, we would say that 
each year our library schools are grad-
u a t i n g intellectual characters who can 
enumerate the Dewey Decimal Classifica-
tion System, who can recite all the titles 
from a bibliography course, who can even 
give out with the formulae for book 
budgets or the square footage require-
ments for a proposed building, b u t who 
cannot satisfactorily answer: W h a t is 
man? Why does he act as he does? How 
should I respond to his actions? How can 
I work more effectively with him? 

O u r concern, then, is with the prob-
lem of translating the librarian's tech-
nical knowledge into personal modes of 
behavior which enable him to work 
more effectively with the reading public. 
We are not concerned with developing 

1 P a u l H . Casselman, "Philosophy, H u m a n Rela-
tions, and Scientific Progress "School and Society, 
L X V I I (1948), 9. 

Mr. Anderson is Director of Libraries, 
Colorado State University; Dr. Kell is 
Associate Professor, Counseling Center, 
Michigan State University. 

more and better knowledge which may 
remain essentially within the librarian's 
head. We are concerned with the pos-
sibility that librarians can be better 
trained in ways of interpersonal inter-
action, which will more effectively p u t 
the librarian's knowledge in the service 
of the needs of the library patron. 

T h i r t y years ago little could have been 
done or said which would have pointed 
toward a solution of the problem we 
have posed. Relatively little was known 
(except for a few pioneer thinkers) 

about the dynamics of h u m a n behavior, 
of the delicacies of interpersonal inter-
action, or of how people actually in-
fluence one another, f n the past three 
decades the burgeoning fields of depth 
psychology, sociology, and other related 
disciplines have supplied a vast new 
knowledge of the nature of h u m a n per-
sonality and behavior. Along with this 
new knowledge has come the realization 
that people can be trained to influence 
one another in desirable directions, to 
communicate better, and to understand 
each other more fully. 

Many applications of the new knowl-
edge have been made in diverse and 
varied fields. T r a i n i n g techniques have 
developed rapidly. T h e classic experi-
ment in h u m a n relations training in in-
dustry is now more than twenty years 
old.2 At the present time it is a rare com-
pany which does not spend a great deal 
of time and money in training a con-
siderable proportion of its employees in 
more effective ways of interpersonal in-
teraction among themselves and with 
others outside the company. Practical 
businessmen do not spend this time and 

2 Jules F . Roethlisberger and William J . Dickson, 
Management and the Worker (Cambridge, M a s s . : H a r -
v a r d University Press, 1939). 

MAY 1958 227 



money entirely because of altruistic mo-
tives. T h e y spend because it pays off in 
higher production, higher employee mo-
rale, and more and better satisfied cus-
tomers. 

Industry is not alone in its application 
of the new knowledge. T h e various pro-
fessions are becoming increasingly pre-
occupied with the n a t u r e of the h u m a n 
relationships between the doctor and pa-
tient, the lawyer and client, the teacher 
and student, the nurse and patient. T h e 
doctor is no longer simply trained in the 
diagnosis and treatment of disease. H e 
is trained to take account of the indi-
vidual characteristics of the patient, the 
psychological milieu in which the disease 
has occurred, the meaning of the disease 
to the patient, and, finally, the reactions 
of the patient to the doctor himself. T h e 
lawyer no longer simply interests himself 
in the client's legal problem, b u t in 
the client himself and the role he has 
played in creating the problem. T h e 
teacher no longer simply pours the mul-
tiplication table into a resistant recep-
tacle. She works intelligently with a 
child who has understandable needs, 
aversions, and motivations which must 
be understood in order to work effective-
ly with him. T h e nurse, too, is learning 
to deal with the patient as a person who 
has a disease rather t h a n as a disease 
which happens to have a nuisance in the 
form of a person attached. 

W e are aware that good doctors, law-
yers, teachers, nurses, and librarians, too, 
have probably always been able to take 
intelligent account of the all too h u m a n 
nature of their clientele. O u r concern 
is that this i m p o r t a n t area is no longer 
being left to chance by other professions. 
Librarianship may be falling behind. 
Nor are we convinced that experience as 
a librarian is the sole possible answer. 
T w e n t y years of experience can be twen-
ty years of learning, or it can be one year 
of experience repeated twenty times. W e 
think that steps can be taken to insure 

that the librarian's training and work 
experience will continue to be learning 
experience. 

By now the reader may be wondering 
what we are talking about in terms of 
concrete h u m a n relations situations in 
libraries. Are we talking about the need 
for librarians to be friendly? Yes, we are 
talking about friendliness, b u t we are 
also talking about something deeper a n d 
more f u n d a m e n t a l . W h a t are the atti-
tudes of the librarian, conscious and 
otherwise, toward the patrons he serves? 
Are these attitudes communicated to the 
patron? W h a t is the p a t r o n likely to 
learn f r o m the interaction between the 
librarian and himself? W h a t is the librar-
ian likely to learn from this same situa-
tion? 

Perhaps we can clarify what we are 
talking about and partially answer some 
of our questions by exploring a situation 
which probably occurs every day in li-
braries t h r o u g h o u t the country. T h e par-
ticipants in our situation are a college 
freshman taking his second semester of 
rhetoric and a reference librarian. O u r 
freshman is like many a new college stu-
dent. H e is a bit brash, still a bit awed 
by it all, and more than a little fright-
ened and confused by his assignment to 
do a research paper on a topic of his 
own choosing for his rhetoric course. 
O u r librarian, on the other h a n d , has 
concluded, on the basis of his ten years 
of experience, that students usually ask 
stupid questions. W h a t happens when 
these two have a brief encounter near 
the reference desk? W e are inclined to 
think that the outcome will seldom be 
very good. T h e student asks a confused 
and tentative question of o u r librarian 
because he is confused and tentative. O u r 
librarian pounces on the question and 
throws out a barrage: " H a v e n ' t you got 
a topic yet? or, how can you expect me 
to help you when you're so vague?" T h e 
student does battle for a m i n u t e or two 
and then retires in disorder with evi-

228 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



dence to add to his fears that he may be 
an inadequate. O u r librarian glows with 
satisfaction (inwardly, we hope) and 
chalks u p another tally in support of his 
favorite hypothesis. 

W e will agree that our incident is per-
haps a bit extreme b u t we are sure that 
such incidents do occur. W e are also sure 
that a m u l t i t u d e of lesser and more sub-
tle incidents occur in libraries every day. 
W e think that librarians can learn to 
learn about patrons from such incidents 
and that such learning will lead to de-
sirable modifications in many librarians' 
behavior. 

How do we propose to go about pro-
moting the kind of learning we have 
outlined? W e suggest, principally, that 
a program of instruction be offered in 
library schools which has as its objective 
the analysis and understanding of in-
cidents to which we have alluded. W h o 
should teach such a course and how long 
should it be? We do not have the final 
answer. W e know that most universities 
have qualified psychologists and sociolo-
gists who can give assistance in setting 
u p such a course and who would, per-
haps, be interested in teaching it. We 
think that such a course might profitably 
be a year in length. T h e first semester 
could comprise some g r o u n d i n g in the 
theory of h u m a n dynamics, classroom 
analysis of reported incidents such as we 
have described, analysis of tape recorded 
incidents, and the like. T h e second se-
mester of work might be comprised prin-
cipally of a practicum experience in 
which the student has experience of his 
own u n d e r the supervision of someone 
who can help h i m to analyze and to 
learn from his experience. T h e training 
of psychological counselors as well as the 
training of practitioners in other pro-
fessions has developed along similar 
lines.3 

3 C a r l R o g e r s , Client-Centered Therapy ( B o s t o n : 
H o u g h t o n Mifflin, 1 9 5 1 ) . 

E l i a s H . P o r t e r , An Introduction to Therapeutic 
Counseling ( B o s t o n : H o u g h t o n Mifflin, 1 9 5 0 ) . 

I n recommending such a course, we 
anticipate the cry from library educators 
that they have all the courses they can 
handle now. Perhaps this is so, b u t of 
what use are all the courses if the knowl-
edge is not translated into effective re-
lationships with library patrons? Nor, 
as we have indicated earlier, do we be-
lieve that experience will necessarily set 
everything right. W e agree with Wallace 
D o n h a m who says that the objective of 
every professional school is "to quicken 
the process of understanding experience 
and to prepare students for practice at 
constantly higher levels. . . . W h e n men 
are on their own, professional experience 
means more to them because of their 
training. T h e early understanding and 
the beginning of skills acquired in school 
are effective only in the sense that in the 
early period of practice young [people] 
can interpret their experience with more 
speed and effectiveness than they could 
without the orderly instruction and prac-
tice given in professional training." 4 

W e note that library school curricula 
provide at least some training in nearly 
every area of librarian job function. 
T r a i n i n g in dealing effectively with li-
brary patrons is conspicuous by its ab-
sence. Should such an i m p o r t a n t area 
continue to be left entirely to chance a n d 
the vicissitudes of experience? W e d o n ' t 
think so. 

4 W a l l a c e B . D o n h a m , " A n E x p e r i m e n t a l C o u r s e in 
H u m a n R e l a t i o n s in H a r v a r d C o l l e g e , " Journal of 
General Education, I I ( 1 9 4 7 ) , 13. 

( E D I T O R ' S N O T E : C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y School of L i -
b r a r y S e r v i c e e a r l y r e c o g n i z e d t h i s p r o b l e m in 1938. A 
c o u r s e i n t h i s field w a s called " P s y c h o l o g i c a l A d j u s t -
m e n t s , " a n d w a s l a t e r r e v i s e d a n d n a m e d " A p p l i e d 
P s y c h o l o g y f o r L i b r a r i a n s . " D r . A l i c e I . B r y a n h a s 
been r e s p o n s i b l e f o r t h i s field. I n t h e r e v i s e d c u r -
r i c u l u m in 1947 it was d r o p p e d f o r s e v e r a l y e a r s . T h e 
c o n t e n t w a s r e t u r n e d t o t h e c u r r i c u l u m in t h e p r e s e n t 
r e v i s i o n , a n d , s i n c e t h e s u m m e r of 1957, a c o u r s e i n 
" I n t e r p e r s o n a l R e l a t i o n s " h a s been o f f e r e d . I t will be 
a p a r t of t h e c o n t i n u i n g p r o g r a m of t h e S c h o o l . T h e 
t i t l e of t h e c o u r s e in t h e f u t u r e will be " H u m a n 
R e l a t i o n s in L i b r a r y A d m i n i s t r a t i o n . " T h e c o n t e n t of 
t h e field is i n c l u d e d in t h e r e s e a r c h p r o g r a m of t h e 
School, a n d o n e s t u d e n t h a s a l r e a d y e m b a r k e d u p o n 
a d o c t o r a l d i s s e r t a t i o n . ) 

MAY 1958 229